~ Out of My Tree

A Week in the Sun

I live in Central New York, which parallels the Pacific Northwest for gray skies and precipitation; we just get ours as snow rather than rain. For about 6 months out of the year, the skies are oppressive, with just 70 hours of sunshine on average in December. That’s about 2.5 hours a day, but sometimes we don’t see the sun for more than a week at a time.

View from my rainforest lanai, complete with a tangerine tree.

So spending a week in the sun during January is a great way to recharge myself enough to power through the rest of the winter. Last year I enjoyed wintery sunshine in northern New Mexico, but this year I soaked up my rays in Hawaii on the “Big Island,” spending about half of my time on the dry sunny northwest coast near Waikoloa, and the other half in the rainforests of the southeastern coast in the Puna district.

Sunburn ensued, obviously. I didn’t mind at all; it felt good to get a little spanking from the sun. But I also spent some time under gray skies that still felt re-invigorating because everything around me was lush, green, and dripping with exotic vegetation. Well, except for the barren lava flows, but even there, the novelty of the moon-like terrain was refreshing.

The conference that took up my first 4 days on the island (and was my excuse for travel) had me a little overstimulated and feeling frayed at times. I tried to manage my needs to prevent a meltdown, taking alone time when I needed it and getting at least 6 hours of sleep a night. I still had a mini-meltdown (it really was a lot of stress) and a sinus infection flare-up, but did pretty well most of the time.

I’m glad I planned several days of vacation on my own to follow the intense professional interactions. The biggest drawback was that Mr. Chickadee stayed home, by his own choice (I have enough frequent flyer miles for a ticket to paradise) so I explored on my own. Although I saw a few sights and spent a lot of time at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, there’s still so much left to explore next time. I promised Mr. Chickadee that I’ll walk to the end of the road again when he’s ready to come with me.

I’m this writing from 37,000 feet (Tuesday), operating on about 3 hours of spotty sleep after getting up at 4:30 AM HST to see birds and boarding a 10:15 PM (Monday) plane in Kona. I won’t get home until 7 PM EST. Factoring everything in — sleep deprivation, Dramamine, Sudafed, missing my sweetheart, a 5-hour time difference, and the fresh dose of sunshine and greenery — I feel great and awful at the same time.

There’s no making it easier on myself; I’ve done all I can to soften the blow. Mr. Chickadee thinks it’s not worth it, but he wasn’t there. It was worth it. Nonetheless, tomorrow (Wednesday) will be very hard (it was) and the coming weeks will be more stressful than I’ve experienced in years as the job search intensifies. I’m grateful I soaked up some sun while I could, and I’m returning to face these challenges fortified by experiences that remind me that there’s more to life than the hard stuff.

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6 thoughts on “A Week in the Sun”

So refreshing to read your sharing of vacation days after your conference. Thank you so much for sharing, I’ve had several days where I feel good and awful all at the same time too lately. Praying for you to find the right job in right timing and comfort and peace during this stressful transition.

Thanks – I try to balance the stressful stuff with a little down time when I can. By monitoring my heart rate, I’ve basically found that all travel is stressful, even when it’s supposed to be relaxing! I’m starting to get a grip on the transition, but this is only the beginning…

In my own personal experience, Hawaii is always worth it. Especially when weather at home is wintery and yucky. We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon (we married in late Fall so the weather–even in Texas–was crappy and depressing).

PS. I’m joining you as a Canvas author soon, so wanted to stop by and say hello. I actually found your blog about a year ago (or so?) before I started mine and found it VERY inspirational. It was an encouragement for me to start my own. YAY! Love it! :)

It’s getting to the point where it’s really heating up and getting super-stressful. I’m trying to keep my head but that can be hard at times. In a couple of weeks I’ll have a much better feel for where things are at, though!